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Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man) is the first major theological work in the West that followed the Great Schism of 1054. This book is a major contribution to the theology of Atonement.

I plan to publish it for discussion in short installments as Catholic-Orthodox caucus threads. All Christians as well as non-Christians are very welcome, but I ask all to maintain the caucus discipline: no interconfessional attacks, no personal attacks, and no off-topic posts. Avoid mentioning confessions outside of the caucus for any reason.

Cur Deus Homo I-III
Cur Deus Homo III-V
Cur Deus Homo VI-VIII: Is God Omnipotent and Wise?
Cur Deus Homo IX-X: Did The Father Wish Christ To Die?
Cur Deus Homo XI-XIV: God's Honor, Compassion, and Justice
Cur Deus Homo XV-XVIII: Men and Angels, Perfection and Election
Cur Deus Homo XIX-XX: No Satisfaction
Cur Deus Homo XXI-XXIII: Enormity of Sin
Cur Deus Homo XXIV-XXV: Unhappiness of Man
Cur Deus Homo Book Second I-IV: Holy, Happy Man
Cur Deus Homo Book Second V-VII: The Necessity of God-Man

Write to me if you want in or out on this St. Anselm ping list.

The summary:

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In this short installment we discuss in what manner should the Redeemer be incarnate. St. Anselm establishes first that He is to be of the race of Adam, that is, not made separately from Adam and Eve from a non-human substance in the manner similar to how Adam was made. That is because the Redeemer is to atone for the sin that it related to Him by the virtue of His race:

if he makes a new man, not of Adam's race, then this man will not belong to the human family, which descended from Adam, and therefore ought not to make atonement for it, because he never belonged to it.

Now we have three additional possibilities. God could make the Redeemer in the natural way from a man and a woman. But

that man will be brought into existence in a nobler and purer manner, if produced from man alone, or woman alone, than if springing from the union of both, as do all other men

Or perhaps God could make the Redeemer from a man alone, like He made Eve, or from a woman alone. The former possibility would leave the last one never tried, and the Creation will lack completeness:

in order to show that this last mode also under his power, and was reserved for this very purpose, what more fitting than that he should take that man [...] from a woman without a man?

Lastly, the necessity for the virginity of Mary is seen from this observation:

If it was a virgin which brought all evil upon the race, it is much more appropriate that a virgin should be the occasion of all good

The Redeemer born from a virgin completes the symmetry of the cosmic design.